Saw Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), another film about somewhat wretched lives lived in those brick tenements in London. This time, the film is set in the 30s-to-50s I guess, and is sort of an ethnography, documenting mostly the songs of the period. The film alternates between vignettes of major life events (weddings, funerals, hospitalizations) and then sing-alongs at the pub. It felt like looking through someone else's photo album: full of fragments of people's lives and pokey old memories you have to struggle to understand.
I found the film to be a bit of a sleeper, a bit of a downer. It starts off with some really sad business involving the abusive father of the family, beating his wife and daughters, coldly refusing to acknowledge his son. The film keeps up a slow but steady trickle of tragedy mixed in with old songs sung beautifully. Some of the characters find happiness, others find sorrow, mostly it's a mix, but life goes on you know? And there's another round and another song. I've seen this kind of film before. It's a sort of sweet film in the end, I guess, but it's slow, distant, not exactly detached but not delving deeply into any of these characters.
On a completely unrelated note, I watched this film because it appears on the top 1000 movies of all time list (here) which I'm watching in increasing order of ranking (starting at #1 and working my down to #1000). The top films are all available for a price on premium streaming services (netflix, and paramount, and youtube rentals) then there was a dry patch where it was hard to find some films, but now they're all available free on Tubi! I sonder what streaming service I'll start using as I go farther down the list.
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